ATHENS - Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis will travel to the United States Thursday for a scheduled meeting with US President George W Bush, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said Wednesday.
In his meeting with Bush Friday, the Greek premier will be raising issues concerning Greece and the United States, including Cyprus, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) name wrangle, Greek-Turkish relations, Turkey's European Union accession and Greek-US bilateral affairs, Roussopoulos said.
"The Prime Minister's visit reflects the excellent state of our bilateral relations as well as the deepening partnership of the two countries in advancing democracy, prosperity, and security from southeastern Europe through the broader Middle East," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said last month.
Ahead of his visit to the White House, Karamanlis is set to meet with US Senators Richard Lugar and Paul Sarbanes, who is of Greek origin.
The Greek PM will travel to Boston later on Friday, where he is scheduled to be awarded an honourary law doctorate on Sunday by Tufts University, his 80s alma mater.
Whilst in Boston, the prime minister will meet with Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the former head organiser of the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics.
Accompanied on the trip by Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis and Roussopoulos, Karamanlis will return to Greece early on Monday morning.
05/18/2005 13:23 GMT